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ELVIS: # Oh, Danny boy... # | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
Danny Boy has captivated millions. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
Elvis Presley believed the song must have been "written by angels". | 0:00:08 | 0:00:13 | |
There is something about the lyric. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
It is so personal yet universal. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
And it sounds like it's absolutely speaking to the centre of you. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
From its birth in 1913, | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
when an English barrister added lyrics to an ancient Irish melody, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
Danny Boy has travelled on a quite unprecedented journey. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
# The pipes are calling # Oh, Danny boy...# | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
It became an anthem for the troops during World War I. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
For the Irish diaspora, it triggered tantalising memories | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
of the land they'd left behind. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:50 | |
All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you were there! | 0:00:51 | 0:00:55 | |
# But come ye back... # | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
1940s Hollywood musicals also embraced Danny Boy, | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
while country musicians tapped into the song's dark themes. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:08 | |
It just puts it out there - | 0:01:08 | 0:01:09 | |
he's dead, somebody is walking above his grave... | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
It's chilling in that way. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
In the 1980s, Danny Boy helped Barry McGuigan unite a troubled Ireland. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:24 | |
Whether you were Catholic or Protestant, | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
they all felt that Danny Boy belonged to them. They owned it. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:30 | |
It even allowed New Yorkers to grieve in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
That song moves people, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
and isn't that the idea? | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
You want to move people? | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
Throughout these very different eras, Danny Boy has survived. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
And flourished. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
It's going to go on for ever, that song. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
Because it touches something deep in the soul. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
# I love you so... # | 0:01:56 | 0:01:57 | |
It has mystery, Danny Boy. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
And that's a great thing for a song to have. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
# Danny boy, I love you so. # | 0:02:03 | 0:02:04 | |
DANNY BOY PLAYED ON FIDDLE | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
In 1851, in the County Londonderry town of Limavady, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
according to local myth, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
a music collector, Jane Ross, was intrigued by a beautiful melody | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
she heard drifting across the town's main street. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
It was being played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
One day Jane heard Jimmy playing this beautiful melody, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:43 | |
so she went across and she asked him to play it | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
over and over and over again, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
until she had taken down every note. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
Jane Ross passed it on to Dublin antiquarian George Petrie, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
who published it in 1855 in The Ancient Music of Ireland. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:02 | |
This help spread the tune further afield. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
It became known as the Londonderry Air. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
Whoever had originally created this ancient melody, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
had constructed something quite brilliant. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
I think there's something about the way music works on our emotions | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
that is more visceral and powerful, in a way, than words. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
# Dah, dah, dah, dahahh... # | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
It's quite an unusual opening. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
And it doesn't start on a downbeat, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
it leaves three notes before you have the first downbeat. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
So you've got this slight sense of floating. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
It's one of these tunes that gives you the opportunity to use | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
a lot of major chords, alternating with minor chords. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
Each phrase has a very similar, arched structure, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:09 | |
and so it rises and then falls. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
It's almost like the sun coming out | 0:04:13 | 0:04:14 | |
and then the clouds passing over it again, all the time. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
Which is very Irish! | 0:04:17 | 0:04:18 | |
But I think that's what gives the song its poignancy. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
# Lah dah dah dahhh... # | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
WORDLESS VOCALISING | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
It's this... # Five, six, seven, eight... # | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
..that are the degrees of scale, or... # Sol, la, ti, do... # | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
And then it has got this wonderful leap up to the third. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:41 | |
# Lah dah dah DAH... # | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
And then an ending phrase, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
which starts with the same notes that the whole song started with. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
But then... | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
It has a little ending phrase which is kind of tying it up | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
and putting a little ribbon on it. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
By 1910, the Londonderry Air had yet to enter the gardens of middle England. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
That year, a successful English lawyer based in Bath, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
who moonlighted as a popular lyric writer, put pen to paper. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
Fred Weatherly was a barrister. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
He lived between 1848 and 1929, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
but all his life he was a songwriter. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
He seemed to have a facility for writing verses very easily. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
Weatherly was prolific. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
As well as penning over a thousand lyrics for tunes of the day, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
he wrote children's books, novels and poetry. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
But in 1910, Fred was uncharacteristically stumped. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
He just couldn't find a melody to fit his Danny Boy lyrics to. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
So he shelved the freshly-inked verses and waited for inspiration. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
Fred was still waiting two years later, when he was visited | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
by Eddie and Margaret, his brother and sister-in-law, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
who lived in Colorado. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
Eddie had emigrated to the States and married Margaret, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
the daughter of an Irish immigrant. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:24 | |
While growing up, Margaret had fallen in love with the old Irish airs her father sang to her. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:32 | |
Fred later claimed that "a sister-in-law" had posted him | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
the Londonderry Air sheet music from across the Atlantic ocean. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
In Fred's autobiography, he specifically uses the words | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
"sent by my sister-in-law from America." | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
That's therefore the story that was handed down in the family. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
Quite why he uses those particular words, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
when it now appears that he was actually introduced to it first-hand, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:14 | |
is a bit of a mystery. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
For decades, the world believed this was the truth - | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
that Fred had been sent the sheet music all the way from Colorado. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
But new research by Fred's great-grandson, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
based on Margaret's writings, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
reveals how she sang the melody to Fred at his home in Bath. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:38 | |
And she said that she then sang the melody of the Londonderry Air, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
and Fred, sitting at the piano, took up the melody | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
and said, "This is the most beautiful melody I have ever heard." | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
After waiting two years for a melody to fit his Danny Boy verses, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
Fred, who had never set foot in Ireland, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
quickly realised that with just a few tweaks | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
they would fit the Londonderry Air perfectly. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
Weatherly, when he did that, was, like, "Hallelujah!" | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
I have hit the jackpot here - emotionally. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
Financially, it's probably going to work out too! | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
There's that feeling as a songwriter, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
when you get it right! I bet that's what Weatherly did - "Yeah!" | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
But not everyone was thrilled. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
Margaret Weatherly had planned to set her own lyrics to the air. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
When Danny Boy was published, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
she felt from then on that her words would never be heard. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
And that in many ways her birthright had been stolen by Fred. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
-SCRATCHY RECORDING -# Oh, Danny boy... # | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
Danny Boy was published in 1913, on the eve of World War I. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
With no credit given to Margaret. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
Its lyrics immediately intrigued people. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
There's been a lot of speculation about Danny himself, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
and the pipes that are calling him. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
Calling him where? | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
Calling him to what? | 0:09:25 | 0:09:27 | |
People are very ingenious when it comes to inventing scenarios | 0:09:27 | 0:09:33 | |
that fit the deliberately ambivalent nature of Weatherly's lyrics. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:38 | |
As World War I began, Danny Boy, soaked in images of loss, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:46 | |
but also hinting at a possible reunion, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
took on a special significance during these terrible times. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
Quite a number of people actually see in the lyrics of the song | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
a young man going off to war. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
The pipes are calling. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
Inviting a young man to take up uniform and go off to the war. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:22 | |
The tune, the melody, is so evocative | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
and the words that Weatherly put to the tune of Danny Boy | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
just evoked a sense of longing, I think it is. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:43 | |
And if you look at the postcards of the time, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
they are beautifully drawn, | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
beautifully coloured, with soldiers saying goodbye and leaving, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
and so the notion that even war itself was sentimental. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
What's powerful about this song is that it's not sentimental, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
and yet everything in the song suggests it should be. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:06 | |
The sentiment involved, knowing that they are going to be | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
in war, under high risk of death, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
means that they are living on the edge. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
Danny Boy sums up that edge, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
in exactly the same way as We'll Meet Again does. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
"If, when you come, all the flowers are dying, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
"If I am dead, as dead I well may be, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
"Please come and find the place where I am lying, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
"And kneel and say an Ave there for me." | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
A Long Way To Tipperary, Danny Boy - | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
these were songs that became emotional anthems for the people | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
who had to do the unthinkable, which was to possibly die. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
English opera singers like Elsie Griffin | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
even sang Danny Boy while entertaining the troops in France. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:06 | |
The song perfectly evoked all the hopes and fears of the British soldiers who fought during the war. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
You have First World War, you had the production of phonographs, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:21 | |
you had the record industry taking off at the same time. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
You had the popularity of the music hall, | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
the popularity of particular singers | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
who gathered international reputations. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
It wasn't long before it gathered quite an appeal. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
Over 200,000 Irishmen fought in World War I. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
Those that returned | 0:12:42 | 0:12:43 | |
brought Danny Boy back from the trenches with them. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
But Ireland was now a very different place from the one they had left behind. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
In 1916 in Dublin, the revolutionary leaders of the Easter Rising | 0:12:52 | 0:12:57 | |
had demanded independence for Ireland, | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
after centuries of being ruled by England. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
When they were executed by the English, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
their deaths provoked a new desire for freedom amongst Irish nationalists. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
As WB Yeats declared - "A terrible beauty is born." | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
The song had certainly an appeal to the Irish, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
particularly during the turbulent years leading | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
from the uprising in 1916 through to the War of Independence. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:34 | |
Many people could relate very easily with Danny Boy at this stage, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:42 | |
with threats of death, with hopes for the future. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
Danny Boy caught the mood of change during this era. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
But the lyrics were not intended to be political. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
For some Irish, Danny Boy didn't give them all that it wanted, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:05 | |
so it was decided to add a third verse. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
This third verse, in fact, actually was political. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:14 | |
# But if I leave | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
# And should you die for Ireland... # | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
With the missing third verse, this is precisely what it does. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
It takes the story of Danny and the original voice | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
of the first two verses, | 0:14:34 | 0:14:35 | |
and projects it into a particular political context - | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
that of Ireland attempting to free itself. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
After signing the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
the South of Ireland became a free state, | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
separating from the North, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
which was now part of the United Kingdom. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
Fred Weatherly appreciated that the song was resonating with | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
the Irish, but he firmly believed that his tune was non-divisive. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:05 | |
In his 1926 autobiography, Fred wrote that it was | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
"Sung all over the world by Sinn Feinners and Ulstermen alike." | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
So he had this notion of the song being all inclusive, | 0:15:14 | 0:15:20 | |
and indeed it is. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
So the song works on a personal level and a subjective level. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
It works on a political level, but transcends politics. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling | 0:15:41 | 0:15:49 | |
# From glen to glen, and down the mountain side... # | 0:15:49 | 0:15:57 | |
Danny Boy was now moving across the Atlantic. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
Huge numbers of Irish had left for the New World | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
in the 19th century. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
This mass migration to America continued in the 1920s | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
and they took Danny Boy with them. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
A song like Danny Boy takes on a life of its own abroad, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
more so than it would at home, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
because they're home, they didn't leave. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
So, you know, it really it is the longing | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
and loss of someone who's said goodbye or are the immigrant. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
And that's why it's so powerful in America. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you're there. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
It is a song about longing. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
And the Irish are very good at longing. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
They're very good at yearning. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
Their poetry is full of it. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
Their culture is full of it. Their stories are full of it. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
TRADITIONAL IRISH FOLK MUSIC | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
For decades, Irish immigrants had | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
been treated as second-class citizens. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
But in the 1920s and '30s, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
they were now imprinting themselves on American life. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
We broke open American society and we did it in several ways. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
With words, with boxing and sports and politics. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:21 | |
We laughed at ourselves, we danced, we gloried, and in the meantime, | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
were taking in songs like Danny Boy. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
# Remember then... | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
The Irish tenor John McCormack was internationally | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
famous during this time. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
He helped establish the tune in the States | 0:17:44 | 0:17:46 | |
beyond the Irish-American communities. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
It is incredible to think, without the use of the internet | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
and mobile phones, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
all of these incredible tools we have now, that man physically | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
went round that enormous country and stood up, when I suppose sound equipment | 0:17:59 | 0:18:04 | |
was at its most basic, and fill a room the size of a baseball stadium. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:10 | |
Because people came in their thousands to hear him sing. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
RAGTIME-STYLE MUSIC | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
It was only a matter of time before Danny Boy moved into | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
1940s Hollywood... | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
with the help of John McCormack. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
I think his version of Danny Boy would have been | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
one of the conduits through which the Londonderry Air in its Danny Boy | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
format would have made its way into Hollywood. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
Once there, I think film-makers would have realised its potential. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:55 | |
The golden age of Hollywood musicals, featuring | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
stars like Judy Garland and Diana Durbin, was in the ascendant. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
Diana Durbin was awesome. Judy Garland was a rival. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
Judy Garland considered her a rival, that's how big she was. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:19 | |
You have promise, and in a few years, a very few years, possibly, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
I want you to come to me again. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
Through the picture, Diana Durbin is trying to impress | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
Charles Laughton because she wants a job. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
She's being very phoney, she's putting on airs. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
And, of course, what better song to show who she really is, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
what her emotions are, the depth of her feeling, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
her ability to act, to deliver, than Danny Boy? | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
I like that. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:19:52 | 0:20:00 | |
'He hears it and he goes, "This woman can act, she's got depth, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
'"she can do it.' | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
And that's the way Hollywood says, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
"That's how you know she's for real, people. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
"This is how you know, cos she's delivering Danny Boy." | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
And boy, does she deliver! | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
We'd...better get to work. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
What happens is, I think, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
is Danny Boy breaks free o' its Irish moorings | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
and becomes part of the American soundscape. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
And it becomes a standard, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
and it becomes a testing ground for people to try out new things with. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:48 | |
So you have all the big jazz orchestras all have a go at it, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
because it's long enough established for people to recognise what it is, | 0:20:54 | 0:20:59 | |
but yet to think, "This is different from the last version I heard. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
"This does something slightly different, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
"harmonically or in terms of its orchestration or its arrangement." | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
So I think it becomes an established part of the soundscape. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
And one of those songs, one of those pieces of music that's | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
instantly identifiable, yet endlessly adaptable. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
BLUESSTYLE SINGING | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling | 0:21:28 | 0:21:36 | |
# From glen to glen... # | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
Danny Boy tapped into black American moods of melancholy and hope. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:47 | |
# The summer's gone... # | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
So you can feel this kind of yearning for something beyond, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
yearning for something lost. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
Which I think the African-American community would have connected | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
with in this song. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
Because this Irish song and the blues are so close together. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:08 | |
# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow | 0:22:08 | 0:22:17 | |
# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... # | 0:22:17 | 0:22:24 | |
In the second half of the 1950s, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
the biggest black crossover star of the day was drawn to Danny Boy. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
The time, time of strife. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
The place, the place is Ireland. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
And as Irish legend has it, when the last rose of summer fell, | 0:22:44 | 0:22:49 | |
and all the men of Ireland were to gather together and to take up arms, | 0:22:49 | 0:22:55 | |
there were songs for those that stayed at home, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
and for those that went away. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
And all of Ireland was sad. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
Harry's opening monologue, I think, is all about universalism. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
I think it's about the brotherhood of man. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
# The pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:23:20 | 0:23:27 | |
He's pulling it apart to find the power that constant usage | 0:23:27 | 0:23:32 | |
and constant listening has somehow deprived us of. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
# ..The mountainside... # | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
So going back, as it were, to the to the initial power of the song | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
and saying, "Listen again. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
"Listen to the way I'm singing it very slowly, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
"thinking about every word. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
"Can you hear in it what I hear in it when I sing it?" | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
And that's the challenge he makes of the listener. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
# But come ye back | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
# When summer's in the meadow | 0:24:06 | 0:24:13 | |
# Or when the valley's hushed | 0:24:14 | 0:24:20 | |
# And white with snow | 0:24:20 | 0:24:25 | |
# I'll be here in sunshine | 0:24:27 | 0:24:34 | |
# Or in shadow | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:24:41 | 0:24:47 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:24:47 | 0:24:52 | |
# I'll miss you so. # | 0:24:52 | 0:24:57 | |
Harry Belafonte included Danny Boy on two massive-selling | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
albums in the late 1950s. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
Propelling the song far beyond the Irish | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
and black populations of America. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
JACKIE WILSON: # Oh, Danny boy | 0:25:17 | 0:25:23 | |
# The pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:25:27 | 0:25:33 | |
At the very same time, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:35 | |
rhythm and blues singers were | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
teasing out a hidden side of the tune. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
# And down the mountain side... # | 0:25:41 | 0:25:47 | |
Jackie Wilson's version is completely different from everybody else. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:56 | |
I picture slow dancing, wearing a wiggle dress...in a... | 0:25:56 | 0:26:02 | |
smoky lounge. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
# It's you, it's you... # | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
You know, you're dancing with your friends, your boyfriend | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
and the lights are low and that's what you dance to. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... # | 0:26:18 | 0:26:27 | |
Getting a few kisses on the neck from your partner. It's totally... | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
He makes it almost sensual and sexy. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
The song is also about your youth passing, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
it's about a moment in time that's ending. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
It's about when you were really happy or you were really...grounded | 0:26:46 | 0:26:54 | |
in a feeling that this is the person you should be with. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
# Oh... | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
# For me. # | 0:27:01 | 0:27:09 | |
Rock'n'roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
you can't help but move to it. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
That's what happens to me, I can't help it, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
I have to move around. I can't stand still. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
I've tried it, I can't do it. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
# Well, it's one for the money | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
# Two for the show | 0:27:23 | 0:27:24 | |
# Three to get ready, now go, cat, go | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes... # | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
In 1958, the very same year | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Jackie Wilson was recording Danny Boy, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
the sky-rocketing career | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
of the most iconic rock'n'roll star in the world | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
was suddenly put on ice. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
Drafted into the US Army, Elvis Presley was stationed | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
thousands of miles away in Germany. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
That was a huge break for him, then, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
because he became real again. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
In other words, he was himself. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
No-one could get at him. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
He became thoughtful, the lyrics, the songs he chose, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:04 | |
became very much lyric, rather than rock, orientated. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
He started doing ballads. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
He had a huge range in his voice, Elvis. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
And, of course, he recorded Danny Boy. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
Danny Boy had been a Presley family favourite. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
MUSIC: "Danny Boy" by Elvis Presley | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
# Oh Danny boy... # | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
Just before Elvis left for Germany, his mother, Gladys, died. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
He had been incredibly close to her. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
He'd sit there and play music and songs that reminded him of home | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
and he was desperately homesick. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
He was definitely singing Danny Boy | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
to think of home and his dad and his family. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
# And all the roses falling... # | 0:28:52 | 0:28:57 | |
I think he's singing it the way the song should be sung - | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
you know, the original versions from the early 1900s | 0:29:01 | 0:29:05 | |
are so operatic and...almost forceful. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:11 | |
# But come ye back when summer... # | 0:29:11 | 0:29:18 | |
And he's singing it with such a delicacy. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
You can hear the heart break and he's plucking those guitar strings | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
like they were heart strings. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
And he thought it was such a beautiful sound, | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
that it was hymnal, almost. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:34 | |
It was spiritual, for him. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:36 | |
"Written by angels" was a phrase that came to be associated | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
with Elvis and that song. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:41 | |
So I think that's what he saw in the song, and he was lonely - | 0:29:41 | 0:29:45 | |
you can imagine a guy, used to all the adulation and everything, | 0:29:45 | 0:29:50 | |
and being damned by preachers, because he was shaking his hips. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
Then all of a sudden, | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
he goes to this place and he finds a spiritual way | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
of expressing himself through music. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
And Danny Boy was one of the songs he used to do that | 0:30:02 | 0:30:06 | |
and he found out that he wasn't the Devil after all. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy | 0:30:13 | 0:30:14 | |
was now infiltrating more and more genres of music. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
# The pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:30:21 | 0:30:26 | |
Well, Irish music and country music are really related, | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
because the Irish came over | 0:30:30 | 0:30:31 | |
and went to the Appalachians, | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
and then eventually down into Nashville, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:37 | |
and the music...it didn't change that much. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:41 | |
I mean, Danny Boy sounds like a country song. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
# It's you must go and I must stay... # | 0:30:44 | 0:30:50 | |
Country music, the narratives are so powerful. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:54 | |
There are real topics about...longing and home | 0:30:54 | 0:31:02 | |
and death and travel | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
and loss - loss beyond the loss of a love, | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
but loss of one's family, loss of one's home. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
# ..are in shadow... # | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
There's always a little mini-drama going on in those songs, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
and of course, within Danny Boy, that's exactly what's going on - | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
there's a little drama happening. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:21 | |
Hello, I'm Johnny Cash. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
# I hear the train a-coming | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
# It's rolling round the bend | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
# And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when... # | 0:31:31 | 0:31:35 | |
Johnny Cash's life was full of mini-dramas. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:39 | |
The mid-1960s was a turbulent time for this outlaw country star. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:44 | |
His addictions and destructive behaviour | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
resulted in a number of arrests. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
Cash released his version of Danny Boy in 1965. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:54 | |
One of the first stories I ever remember my dad telling | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
was one that an Irish immigrant told him, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
and according to that particular source of information, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
there was this boy named Daniel McKinney | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
working in the fields one morning, | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
and across the fields came his sweetheart, Rosalie, | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
she came crying, with tears in her eyes. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
Later, someone put down into a song | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
some of the things Rosalie told Daniel. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
She said, "Daniel, there's a bloody war a-raging | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
"and I've come to tell you that they're wanting you to fight. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
"Go, fight for Ireland, but come back to me, Daniel. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
"I'll be waiting." | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
He's trying to establish, for the listener, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
the importance of this song, | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
for him, as an artist - | 0:32:40 | 0:32:42 | |
where he learnt it, | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
who he learnt it from, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:45 | |
why it was important to somebody like his father, | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
with whom he has a troubled relationship. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
And that troubled relationship continues on into the performance. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:56 | |
# But if you fall | 0:32:57 | 0:33:01 | |
# As all the flowers are fallin' | 0:33:01 | 0:33:05 | |
# And if you're dead | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
# As dead you well may be... # | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
My dad has a lot of respect for his parents | 0:33:14 | 0:33:18 | |
and he was brought up thinking that no matter...what the parent did, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:24 | |
you had to respect them, you had to show respect. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
I think there was something deeply lacking in his relationship | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
with his dad, you know? | 0:33:31 | 0:33:32 | |
# ..an Ave there for thee | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
# But come ye back | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
# When summer's in the meadow | 0:33:42 | 0:33:47 | |
# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... # | 0:33:48 | 0:33:55 | |
And we know he's a troubled personality, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:58 | |
so that personality makes its way into the lyric | 0:33:58 | 0:34:03 | |
and then we see it in a different...perspective. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
no longer as a straightforward love song. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy | 0:34:10 | 0:34:15 | |
# I love you so. # | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
Johnny Cash glimpsed the dark shadows | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
flickering across Danny Boy. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
The song's success in country music, Hollywood and black America | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
all boosted its reputation back in Ireland. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:44 | |
# ..here in sunshine | 0:34:44 | 0:34:54 | |
# Or in shadow... # | 0:34:54 | 0:35:00 | |
By the 1960s, the song that English barrister Fred Weatherly | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
wrote decades earlier | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
had now seeped into the very fabric of Irish life. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:10 | |
# I love you so. # | 0:35:12 | 0:35:22 | |
You sort of grew up | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
with Danny Boy just being there, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:29 | |
the way the Our Father is there. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
It's part of growing up, it's everywhere. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
The down side of it was...everybody has a drunk uncle | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
who sings Danny Boy, especially at family events, | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
like weddings, when you cringe. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
But despite the number of times it has been brutalised | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
by drunk men at weddings, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:48 | |
it's still a great song. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:49 | |
# But come ye back | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
# When summer's in the meadow | 0:35:52 | 0:35:56 | |
# Or when the valley's... # | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
It's usually at the end of an evening, | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
just before you're thrown out. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:03 | |
I mean, when it gets to Danny Boy, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:07 | |
it's time to go. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
Any person who wishes to parade... | 0:36:10 | 0:36:15 | |
SHOUTING AND SCREAMING | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
But by the late 1960s, the Troubles began. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
Violence, both Republican and Loyalist, | 0:36:28 | 0:36:32 | |
mostly dormant since the early 1920s, | 0:36:32 | 0:36:34 | |
reasserted itself, blackening the mood of the country. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
You'd just see that pall of gloom descend on everything. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
And people walking with slumped shoulders | 0:36:47 | 0:36:50 | |
and no activity at night, people wouldn't go out at night. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:53 | |
Live entertainment was not happening. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:55 | |
It was very dark and what we badly needed then was a hero. | 0:36:55 | 0:37:00 | |
It was a very difficult time, | 0:37:07 | 0:37:09 | |
it was a very sad time, | 0:37:09 | 0:37:11 | |
a treacherous time, | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
and every corner you turned, | 0:37:13 | 0:37:14 | |
the flagstones were painted one colour or the other. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
Barry McGuigan was a Catholic, born in the border town of Clones. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:28 | |
I spent my life crossing divisions and crossing barriers and borders | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
and breaking down these supposed no-nos | 0:37:35 | 0:37:39 | |
and it was very important to me. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
I mean, the girl I grew up with and loved, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
she lived across the road, she happened to be a Protestant. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
And she happened to go to school in the North. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
And I'd spent my entire life travelling into the North, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
boxing in the North, not...just not taking notice | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
of the potential dangers. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
That's it - McGuigan is through... | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
During his amateur years, | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
McGuigan realised boxing could be a unifying force. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:08 | |
I think sport has a unique ability to bring people together - | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
different races and different religions. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
And I've seen it in my own life. I'm proof of it. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
And, you know...and Danny Boy... | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
Danny Boy had a lot to do with that too. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
At the beginning of the 1980s, | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
now a professional featherweight boxer, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:32 | |
McGuigan had a quick succession of wins. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:35 | |
Then, in 1985, he challenged the Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza | 0:38:35 | 0:38:41 | |
for the biggest prize of them all - the world title. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
We knew that when I fought for the world title that we would have to | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
play an anthem. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:51 | |
I didn't want to play either the Irish national anthem | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
or the British national anthem. It was important, | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
and all the way through my career | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
I didn't want people feeling ill-at-ease going to my events, | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
I wanted to make them feel not threatened | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
because there was enough threatening stuff going on all around us. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
And, so, we all decided Dad would sing Danny boy. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
Barry's father, Pat, was a professional singer | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
and had been Ireland's entry in the 1968 Eurovision Song contest. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:19 | |
But in 1985 at Loftus Road, | 0:39:21 | 0:39:23 | |
this would be the biggest audience of his career. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
It was Phil Coulter who arranged the version of Danny Boy | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
that Pat would sing that evening. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
Would Pat have the bottle for it? | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
Because bearing in mind it's Barry's dad who's fighting | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
for the world title, it's a very emotional song. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:40 | |
# ..to glen and down the mountain side | 0:39:42 | 0:39:48 | |
# The summer's gone | 0:39:51 | 0:39:55 | |
# And all the flowers are dying... # | 0:39:55 | 0:40:00 | |
It was very important to me but it was also very important to him | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
because he was telling me how much he loved me, and I was | 0:40:04 | 0:40:06 | |
going into battle, and I was doing something that was very dangerous, | 0:40:06 | 0:40:11 | |
and, you know, lots of people have been killed in boxing bouts. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
So, for him, it was not just singing to the audience, | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
but it was a message to me. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
# But come ye back | 0:40:20 | 0:40:25 | |
# When summer's in the meadow | 0:40:25 | 0:40:32 | |
# And when the valley's hushed | 0:40:32 | 0:40:38 | |
# And white with snow | 0:40:38 | 0:40:43 | |
# 'Tis I'll be here | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
# In sunshine or in shadow... # | 0:40:47 | 0:40:53 | |
Jim Sheridan was there that night. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
It was electric. | 0:40:57 | 0:40:59 | |
It was really powerful. And we needed that win, you know? | 0:40:59 | 0:41:04 | |
Needed that something good to happen. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
It was a religious event, you know? Everybody was singing. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
I looked around and everybody, but everybody, was singing | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
because we were getting behind our boy. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
We were confirming our Irishness. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
Pedroza, 5'10", four inches taller, long reach. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:31 | |
The world title fight went to the very final round. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:36 | |
Paddy Byrne in my corner said to me, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
"Barry, you've got three minutes to beat one of the best | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
"featherweights this century." I say, "Is this the last round?" | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
"Yes, it's the last round." That's how pumped up I was, | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
that's how enthusiastic I was, and that's driven and determined I was. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:53 | |
And a part of that drive was to make sure that | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
I would win it for the people of Ireland, North and South. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
By unanimous decision... | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
CHEERING | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
-..Barry McGuigan... -McGuigan is the champion of the world! | 0:42:04 | 0:42:10 | |
I think it's Seamus Heaney says, "There was one amongst us who stood taller than the rest." | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
And for such a short fella, he stands very tall in our history. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:18 | |
And he is absolutely a prime example of how | 0:42:18 | 0:42:22 | |
when you're the best at something, regardless of what | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
somebody else's politics are, that's enough and people will follow. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
And he became absolutely the epitome of what it was | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
to succeed at sport, and to rise above political division. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:36 | |
Danny Boy had shown the world it was the perfect vehicle to bridge | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
the divide between the two communities. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
This song is probably the greatest ballad that was ever written. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
And the words are very clever, but the melody is the thing. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:53 | |
You can wrap that melody around everything. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
And it means so much to you. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 | |
If you look, in sunshine, or in shadow, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
the song is both uplifting and melancholic. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
I'd like to think I brought some sunshine into people's life | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
when I was fighting, I know I did. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:09 | |
And the melancholy was also something they could remember | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
and they could relate it to certain aspects of their life. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:18 | |
And Danny Boy is just a hugely, hugely amazing song. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
RAPPING: Danny boy, Danny boy The pipes are calling... | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
By the 1990s, Danny Boy was even entering the world of New York hip-hop. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:33 | |
Danny boy! You know it's Danny boy! | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
Danny boy! | 0:43:37 | 0:43:40 | |
So huge was the song's reputation now that it was ripe for subversion. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:46 | |
DANNY BOY SCRATCHED ON TURNTABLE | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
Larry Kirwan and his Irish-American band, Black 47, | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
were taking the now sacred status of Danny Boy | 0:43:52 | 0:43:56 | |
and undermining it for their own fun. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
My idea was to have a new Danny Boy, | 0:44:01 | 0:44:05 | |
an Irish, gay construction worker. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:10 | |
# One day on the job the foreman said | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
# Danny boy, we think you're a fag | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
# With your ponytail and that ring in your ear | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
# We don't need no homos foulin' up the air... # | 0:44:18 | 0:44:21 | |
He has interpreted Danny Boy | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
as a gay labourer, singing to his lover! | 0:44:25 | 0:44:31 | |
Here was this song that was right in front of you, | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
and you have to deal with the hero, and the hero is not unlike you. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:40 | |
The only difference is, he is a different sexuality. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
And it just pisses people off! | 0:44:43 | 0:44:48 | |
Oh, it was like putting Silent Night to jazz, you know?! | 0:44:48 | 0:44:52 | |
HE IMITATES WHINGEING CHILD | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
But that's Larry, and he's not gay, I mean, he's... | 0:44:55 | 0:44:58 | |
But that was just his way of kind of making a bit of fun of it. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:03 | |
# But come ye back | 0:45:03 | 0:45:08 | |
# When summer's in the meadow... # | 0:45:08 | 0:45:13 | |
American movie directors like the Coen Brothers | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
also realised they could have fun with Danny Boy | 0:45:16 | 0:45:18 | |
and exploit the song for its ironic potential. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
# ..and white with snow... # | 0:45:21 | 0:45:25 | |
They found what they believed was the most beautiful, | 0:45:25 | 0:45:30 | |
the most evocative Irish song | 0:45:30 | 0:45:33 | |
that they could find, | 0:45:33 | 0:45:35 | |
and they cut it with real violence. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
The scene itself is operatic. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:48 | |
# ..the flowers dying | 0:45:48 | 0:45:53 | |
# If I am dead, as dead I well may be... # | 0:45:53 | 0:46:01 | |
The scene at the window, where the man uses the machine gun | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
and he shoots out the gunman, | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
that's teased out to its cartoonish extreme. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
The action lasts for the entire length of the song. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
The song ends when the action does. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:23 | |
To the very last chord of the orchestra, | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
which ends with the explosion of a car. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:29 | |
# ..and tell me that you love me... # | 0:46:31 | 0:46:37 | |
Everybody suspects that it's a lullaby, | 0:46:39 | 0:46:41 | |
or, you know, a nice song, a song of peace and longing, | 0:46:41 | 0:46:47 | |
and to contrast it with that level of violence is really smart. | 0:46:47 | 0:46:52 | |
You know? I'm not sure an Irish person could do that, you know? | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
Despite these occasional moments of mischief, | 0:47:05 | 0:47:09 | |
by the end of the 20th century | 0:47:09 | 0:47:11 | |
Danny Boy was increasingly viewed as a secular hymn. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:14 | |
There's sadness, there's loneliness, there's moments together. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:20 | |
There's beauty, there's flowers dying, there's flowers blooming. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
There's kneeling and saying a prayer there. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:26 | |
But there's also, "This isn't the end, we'll meet again." | 0:47:26 | 0:47:29 | |
The Londonderry Air had been played | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
at the funerals of both President Kennedy and Princess Diana. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
While Danny Boy itself was performed at Elvis Presley's wake. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
There's a wonderful sense of, even though | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
we know this is the end, it's not the end. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
And I love that about it, and I think that's what comforts people about it. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
But in June 2001, when Danny Boy was sung | 0:48:00 | 0:48:04 | |
during the funeral of Irish-American actor Carroll O'Connor, | 0:48:04 | 0:48:08 | |
certain people believed enough was enough. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:12 | |
The archdiocese of New York, of Rhode Island, of Boston, | 0:48:13 | 0:48:19 | |
banned the singing of any secular songs | 0:48:19 | 0:48:25 | |
or any playing of secular music at funerals. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
It so happened that these archdioceses put that ban into effect | 0:48:30 | 0:48:35 | |
just before 9/11. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:39 | |
And such bad timing you never saw in your whole life. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:44 | |
Firefighter Tim Geraghty was part of the rescue effort on 9/11. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:03 | |
Tim lost many firefighting friends that day. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
Following the terrorist attack, he continued to work at Ground Zero. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:14 | |
So, your days were spent, you know, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
being down there with the ironworkers, | 0:49:19 | 0:49:21 | |
and all the other rescue workers, and if they found something | 0:49:21 | 0:49:24 | |
you'd go in and assist, you'd go in and dig by hand | 0:49:24 | 0:49:26 | |
and you'd do what you could, | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
and you'd maybe pull somebody out, and it quickly became a rescue... | 0:49:29 | 0:49:33 | |
a recovery effort, rather than a rescue effort. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
343 New York firefighters, many of them of Irish descent, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:44 | |
lost their lives on 9/11. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:46 | |
We would break for lunch in this cantina, | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
and one day this captain I was working with | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
tapped me on the shoulder and said, | 0:49:55 | 0:49:57 | |
"Hey, do you see that guy who's serving you food?" | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
I go, "Yeah." He says, "That's Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor." | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
And I looked at him, I said, "Yeah!" I go, "That's Ronan Tynan." | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
And he asked Ronan to sing a song. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:11 | |
So, Ronan finally agreed, and he had this big chef hat on, | 0:50:11 | 0:50:15 | |
so he just takes the chef hat off, he has a big spoon in his hand, | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
and he takes the spoon and he just starts singing Danny Boy. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:50:21 | 0:50:26 | |
# The pipes, the pipes are calling | 0:50:26 | 0:50:31 | |
# From glen to glen | 0:50:31 | 0:50:35 | |
# And down the mountain side... # | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
And within an instant, his voice filled the whole room, | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
and the place went silent. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
And he sang that song, and I'll tell you what, | 0:50:45 | 0:50:49 | |
there was men in there that were moved to tears. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:52 | |
It was like one of those moments, it was a goosebump moment, | 0:50:52 | 0:50:55 | |
and it was dead silent, and he sang Danny Boy, and he finished, | 0:50:55 | 0:50:59 | |
and it was still silent, | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
and he took his chef hat, he put it back on, | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
and he just sat there and he was, like, "Next!" | 0:51:05 | 0:51:07 | |
And he just started serving food again. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
# And I shall sleep in peace | 0:51:09 | 0:51:16 | |
# Until you come to... # | 0:51:16 | 0:51:23 | |
In the aftermath of 9/11, contrary to the wishes of those | 0:51:25 | 0:51:29 | |
Catholic dioceses, Danny Boy was performed at a number of funerals. | 0:51:29 | 0:51:34 | |
Why can't Danny Boy be played? | 0:51:34 | 0:51:38 | |
Because the song moves people, and isn't that the idea? | 0:51:38 | 0:51:42 | |
You want to move people, you want people to remember, | 0:51:42 | 0:51:46 | |
you want people to think about why they're at a funeral. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
Sacred music is what your mother sang to you when you were a child, | 0:51:50 | 0:51:54 | |
that's what's sacred, | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
and if someone wants that for their son who's been killed, | 0:51:57 | 0:52:00 | |
that's bloody sacred, and so that's what they told | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
the archdiocese and so forth, and that's how Danny boy, | 0:52:03 | 0:52:07 | |
or the Londonderry Air, got played and sung at most of these funerals, | 0:52:07 | 0:52:12 | |
and they said to the archdiocese, | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
"Up yours, we're going to do anyway, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:17 | |
"and you can excommunicate us if you want." | 0:52:17 | 0:52:19 | |
JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
# The pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:52:33 | 0:52:37 | |
As Danny Boy was recorded again and again, vocalists of the 21st century | 0:52:37 | 0:52:42 | |
like Tara O'Grady | 0:52:42 | 0:52:44 | |
looked back into the past to breathe new life into the song. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:49 | |
I've taken a sad song and changed it. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
I swing it, so it's a little more up-tempo | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
because I don't want to be sad when I'm singing it. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
It's got soul, and more so than any other Irish traditional song. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:06 | |
I think that's why you can take it anywhere. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:08 | |
# ..when summer's... # | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
But even in the new Millennium, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
singers still struggle to reach that infamous Danny Boy high note. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:18 | |
I mean, as a singer, Danny Boy is quite an undertaking. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:22 | |
You don't quite realise it, because most people go, oh, yeah, | 0:53:22 | 0:53:24 | |
Danny Boy... # Oh, Danny boy The pipes, the pipes are calling. # | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
Sounds kind of OK, not too much of a range. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:30 | |
# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow. # | 0:53:30 | 0:53:39 | |
And then you get to the first chorus. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
# And I shall hear though soft you tread above me. # | 0:53:41 | 0:53:45 | |
Right, so again, getting up there, but not crazy. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
# 'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow. # | 0:53:48 | 0:53:56 | |
You see, that's the part everyone has trouble with! | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
# Then you shall hear whisper that you love me. # | 0:53:59 | 0:54:04 | |
Now I'm doing that in my kind of falsetto voice. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:07 | |
I just go up like, # Der... # | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
I do the falsetto thing that I hear often, and you'll hear in, | 0:54:09 | 0:54:13 | |
like, doo-wop or jazz or blues singers, they'll just do this. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:18 | |
That's the only I could figure out how to do it, how to cover it, | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
otherwise if I didn't do that, I couldn't go up there. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
So be very careful what key you start it in, because you're going | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
to end up on very dangerous ground if you don't hit those notes. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:33 | |
Danny Boy is easily Fred Weatherly's most famous lyric. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:41 | |
He had died a national figure, and a rich man, in 1929. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
But his Irish-American sister-in-law, Margaret, | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
who introduced him to the Londonderry Air which had | 0:54:51 | 0:54:53 | |
fitted his Danny Boy verses so perfectly, was not so fortunate. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:58 | |
Fred's brother, Eddie, and Margaret, | 0:55:00 | 0:55:02 | |
had been receiving a small allowance from Fred until his death. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:07 | |
But when Eddie died during America's Great Depression, | 0:55:07 | 0:55:10 | |
Margaret's life fell apart. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:12 | |
Fred's great-grandson, Anthony Mann, | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
has recently discovered writings of Margaret's | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
in which she expressed her anger at Fred | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
for failing to acknowledge her role in the creation of Danny Boy. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
"How could he leave the false statement that he had | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
"Danny Boy sent to him? It is a bitter pill to me. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
"I always felt pain that I lost something." | 0:55:36 | 0:55:40 | |
Margaret didn't have a legal case to stand on | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
because he didn't plagiarise her, but I think there's a moral issue. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:49 | |
I think Margaret gave something of her to him | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
in her interpretation of music which Fred somehow was able to use to make | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
this Irish song, so I think he owed her | 0:55:56 | 0:56:00 | |
and should have acknowledged her personally, which he didn't. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:04 | |
Soon after she wrote this, Margaret mentally deteriorated. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:10 | |
In 1939, the Irish-American woman | 0:56:10 | 0:56:12 | |
who had been written out of Danny Boy's history by Fred Weatherly, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:16 | |
died, penniless and insane. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
# But come ye back | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
# When summer's in the meadow... # | 0:56:26 | 0:56:32 | |
2013 was the 100th anniversary of the publication | 0:56:32 | 0:56:37 | |
of Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:39 | |
This was celebrated | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
during the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture year | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
with a mass sing-along. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:46 | |
# 'Tis I'll be here | 0:56:46 | 0:56:47 | |
# In sunshine or in shadow... # | 0:56:47 | 0:56:53 | |
People in Derry, everyone likes to think they can sing, whether they | 0:56:53 | 0:56:57 | |
can not is irrelevant, so we have kind of bragging rights on Danny Boy. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:04 | |
It was very emotional when we had thousands of people | 0:57:06 | 0:57:09 | |
in the Guildhall Square singing Danny Boy. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
I suppose that was the song coming home after all of this time, | 0:57:12 | 0:57:17 | |
and also, it was Derry reclaiming the song, saying, | 0:57:17 | 0:57:22 | |
"Don't forget, this is our song." | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
It seems to move every generation. | 0:57:32 | 0:57:35 | |
It's one of those songs that is here, it's hovering, it has wings, | 0:57:35 | 0:57:39 | |
it's a free thing all by itself, and you can't tame a song like that. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:41 | |
Well done, everyone! | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
I know it comes out of the past, it comes here in the present, | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
and you know that it's not going to not go on. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
It's going to go on for ever, that song. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:55 | |
It's kind of like Guinness at this point. It's everywhere. | 0:57:55 | 0:58:00 | |
# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... # | 0:58:00 | 0:58:08 | |
It's probably a journey that will never end, and when you come | 0:58:08 | 0:58:12 | |
and all the flowers are dying, and they will be for a long time, | 0:58:12 | 0:58:16 | |
but then they will bloom again, and Danny will still be | 0:58:16 | 0:58:20 | |
on the road, and you never know, because somewhere, the pipes, | 0:58:20 | 0:58:26 | |
the pipes will be calling. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:28 | |
# Whoa, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, the pipes are calling | 0:58:28 | 0:58:33 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:58:33 | 0:58:34 | |
# From glen to glen and even down the mountain side | 0:58:34 | 0:58:39 | |
# The summer's gone and all the roses falling | 0:58:39 | 0:58:45 | |
# It's you, it's you must go and I must abide | 0:58:45 | 0:58:49 | |
# Oh, Danny boy | 0:58:49 | 0:58:51 | |
# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... # | 0:58:51 | 0:58:55 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:55 | 0:58:57 |